Deutsche Börse Won't Sell Clearstream

German stock market operator Deutsche Börse has no plans to sell its clearing subsidiary Clearstream as a concession to persuade the London Stock Exchange to accept the Frankfurt stock exchange's bid for the LSE, a spokesman said Monday. "Clearstream is an integral part of Deutsche Börse", the spokesman said, rejecting a report in the Financial Times which said that the Frankfurt stock exchange was considering spinning off Clearstream in order to persuade the LSE of the advantages of a merger. The LSE argues that the fact that Deutsche Börse's activities combine trading, clearing and settlement under one roof could disadvantage the users of the London market. The newspaper also said that a planned meeting on Thursday

between Deutsche Boerse chief Werner Seifert and his counterpart at the LSE, Clara Furse, could see the German group raise its offer price for London by 70 British pence (98 eurocents) to over 600 pence per share. The Deutsche Börse spokesman refused to comment on that information. Furse is also scheduled to meet Jean-François Theodore, head of rival stock market operator Euronext this week, with analysts expecting the operator of the Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon exchanges to table an offer of 580 pence per LSE share.